ESNS kicks off in less than one week. Here you’ll find the latest conference programme additions, as well as some conference highlights. If you have not registered for the conference yet, you can do so here.

Previously we announced an interview with Saxons’ Biff Byford. Unfortunately, due to additional recovery time needed following Biff’s triple bypass heart surgery last September, Biff will not be able to make an appearance at ESNS 2020.

Gordon Masson (IQ Magazine) in Conversation with Thomas Jensen and Holger Hübner (Wacken Open Air)The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's European Festival Awards, Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen created and developed the world’s biggest metal festival, Wacken Open Air, taking it from a party for 800 people to an event that annually sells out 75,000 tickets.

As the festival marks its 30th birthday, IQ Magazine editor, Gordon Masson, will quiz the duo about why they chose a remote village in northern Germany to host the enormous event, as well as their extraordinary Wacken branding, fan loyalty, recovering from near bankruptcy, and what the future has in store following the founders’ recent partnership deal with Superstruct Entertainment.

The Innovating Ways of HipHop Promo and PR
The Dutch HipHop scene is growing faster than ever, offering a unique media landscape that’s breaking with all the traditional ways of promo and PR. ParraTV became one of the most relevant online platforms for Dutch HipHop culture by creating content that hits exactly the right spot with young audiences. At the same time, various Dutch HipHop labels are a force to be reckoned with, using unique ways on social media to promote their artists. Noisey's Wouter van Dijk quizzes the leading figures in Dutch HipHop Culture, Fares Masharawi (ParraTV), Patrick van Diggelen (Noah’s Ark) and Lukie Stalenhoef (WooHah!, Top Notch) about their content strategies.

Business Ventures in Culture Funding
Business Ventures are more and more interested in the creative and cultural sectors, often seeing it, together with the community building and impact marketing, as the core of their brand identity. The commercialisation of culture and it’s ‘too affectionate’ relationships with the business world is often becoming a topic for fierce debate. At the same time with the right balance, these two worlds can really give each other a boost. In this panel we will share the overview of the EU funding situation, the latest business x culture crossover trends and use the expertise of both worlds to conduct a recipe for future-proof culture funding.

Video Content Strategy
Video is one of the most effective content formats for venues, festivals and artists to communicate with their fans and generate lots of reach. But how do you create a great video content strategy? Which formula works best for which media? Roosmarijn Reijmer will question WooHah! Festival’s senior marketer Joost Abeelen, who creates video content for the festival that is shared massively even all throughout the US. And Willem van Zeeland, chief editor VPRO, a national broadcast organisation that airs various festivals online and on tv.

A.I. in Songwriting
Can artificial intelligence help write a song as awesome as Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence did last year? In the AI ​​Song Contest, various European teams of musicians, scientists and developers take on the challenge of creating a new hit with the help of artificial intelligence. From April 2020, a panel of AI experts and the international audience together determine which team will earn their douze points. Creator of the AI Song Contest Karen van Dijk and others involved will talk about the competition and discuss what artificial intelligence could mean for music in the future.

VNPF (Dutch Venues & Festivals Association) at ESNS: panels, VNPF General Assembly and the IJzeren Podiumdieren AwardsFair Pay, inclusion, diversity: important issues for all venues in the Dutch music scene. VNPF will address the most important consequences of the new governmental regulations in three different panels. How does the music industry contribute to these specific elements of the Fair Practice Code and to what costs? What is needed to meet the new standards? And more important, what are these new standards exactly?

VNPF will also go into the new ban on smoking, effective as from March this year. Next to that, VNPF is hosting the IJzeren Podiumdieren Awards on the Saturday of ESNS, in De Oosterpoort, in the run up to Noorderslag festival.

New Conference Centre on the Saturday of ESNS
On the Saturday of the event, the ESNS Conference moves to a brand new conference centre: Forum Groningen. The conference is directly followed by Noorderslag Festival, which is taking place in the Oosterpoort as usual.

At the Oosterpoort there's a special early entrance for delegates who are visiting Noorderslag festival, which is giving them the opportunity to enter the venue at 18:00 already. During Noorderslag, there's a special 'networking hub' in the heart of the Oosterpoort, where music professionals can meet up, hang out and network. This is exclusively accessible for conference delegates.